I know what most of you are thinking, why would the Royals extend Ian Kennedy? It’s really quite simple if you think about it. To start off Kennedy provides veteran leadership. As we all know teams need veteran leadership. Ian Kennedy provides that for the Royals after being with the organization for almost five seasons. If the Royals did extend Kennedy it would be a one year deal worth probably for $4 or $5 million dollars. The second reason the Royals should extend Kennedy is because they don’t have a reliable fifth starter until either Brady Singer is ready or someone else is ready to start for the Royals. His trade value would go up as well. Sparkman and Lopez are likely staying in the bullpen, so they are out of the question. Now the bullpen question. Who would be the closer if the Royals moved Kennedy back to the rotation? The Royals have plenty of options for the closing role in Rosenthal, Holland and possibly Sparkman. If it were me I would put Rosenthal in the closers role. Despite Kennedy’s age he has said in the past he is hoping to pitch after his current contract with the Royals is up. With that being said I don’t think a one year contract extension for Kennedy would be too crazy.
